Messages

76

General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« on: September 19, 2007, 07:47 AM »

Anyone know if it's possible to run an app like DoPDF on a USB memory stick?

77

Developer's Corner / Re: FreeForYourSite.com - fun blog about website developer tools

« on: September 03, 2007, 03:30 AM »

Thanks for alerting us to this site. I'm always grateful for any assistance with site building.

Clive

78

General Software Discussion / Re: OpenProj: Free cross-platform, ms-project-compatible project management tool

« on: September 03, 2007, 03:26 AM »

Just wondering if there are tutorials for project management software. I've had a bit of a search, but not found anything suitable for the complete beginner.
I tried OWB, but found that their forums were bogged down with spam & consequently very few real replies to queries.
I'm interested in Project Management as I'm considering being the project manager when/if we build a house we're currently dreaming about.
Anyone know of any specific software for construction PM? I've heard of AccuPlan.

Thanks,
Clive

79

General Software Discussion / Re: WYFCA?

« on: August 06, 2007, 08:10 PM »

TWAIN
Geeks can have a sense of humour

80

Living Room / Re: Tip: Don't Just Keep a backup of your latest files

« on: July 26, 2007, 03:15 AM »

Thank you Armando & SteelAdept.
I've tried cloning using:
1) DiscWizard from the SeaGate site - it couldn't find the second drive which I was cloning to!
2) An old copy of DriveCopy by powerQuest - it was semi successful as I was able to boot as far as the password screen, but as soon as I entered "next" the boot process flipped over to "Windows is logging off"
I plan to try the free version of XXClone next. The author of this software has written heaps of supporting documentation which looks helpful.
My fingers are crossed.

81

Living Room / Re: Tip: Don't Just Keep a backup of your latest files

« on: July 24, 2007, 09:44 PM »

Something which I don't seem to ever get right is the re-install process after a catastophic event. Over recent months I've suffered a "C" drive failure & a motherboard failure at different times. I keep backups on an internal drive and a clone of the "C" drive at a remote location.
For both the above events I've been able to restore everything without loss.  The clone was no help with the motherboard failure as the new MB was different from the old one and the clone was no help with the HDD failure either as there was some glitch (Yes, I did omit checking the clone worked when I made it ).
So obviously I'm learning from my mistakes and striving to have a better solution for the next event.
I'm currently recovering from the HDD failure with a brand new computer
It's all so slow though and I wish there were a way to streamline the process. I've made a clone at the 50% re-install stage and checked to see if it works - no it doesn't What to do now?

I'm no geek (no offence meant ) and the hours spent re-installing I would rather spend doing something else. (Paying someone else to do the task is not an option)

Has anyone thought about these issues and developed a solution that works?

82

General Software Discussion / Re: Audio Editors?

« on: July 07, 2007, 07:30 PM »

You could look here too:
Free Music and Other Audio Editing Software - Download Wave and ...
Download this free audio editing software. A music editor, sound editor, wave editor, it can convert audio to Wav or MP3 and includes Sound Effects like.
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/
[ Result from Google ]

83

General Software Discussion / Re: HDD Speed Control

« on: July 07, 2007, 08:21 AM »

Thank you Masu

84

General Software Discussion / HDD Speed Control

« on: July 07, 2007, 02:55 AM »

Again I turn to the collective brain for assistance.
In some "try B4 u buy" tweaking software I tried there was a tweak which allowed the changing of the HDD's rpm - lower speed = lower noise. Is there any free software which achieves this?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Clive

85

General Software Discussion / Re: Recommendations for project/schedule management software (besides MS Project)?

« on: July 07, 2007, 02:37 AM »

Probably not quite what Superboyac had in mind, but does anyone know of free project management s/ware for construction i.e. building a house?
AccuPlan looks OK, but not free. I had a go at Open Work Bench - found it too hard to learn OOTB and its forum is clogged with spam.

86

General Software Discussion / Re: Outlook 2007 - a rant

« on: June 06, 2007, 10:14 PM »

On a related note, another thing that was made clear while Office was in beta is that Outlook 2007 can import pst files created in 2003 and earlier, but pst files created/updated in Outlook 2007 can not be exported back into Outlook 2003. I am SO glad that I caught that before blithely migrating everything into the beta, which is what I had planned to do!

-Darwin (June 05, 2007, 12:23 PM)

I wish I'd known this before I blithley upgraded to Outlook 2007. The reason being that when I wanted to confirm that .pst backups were occurring correctly (in Outlook 07) I tried restoring the backup. As you may know this process opens the backed up Personal Folders below the current Personal Folders. Whenever I attempt this process the computer freezes and I get the error message "this program is not responding". Now I live in fear of losing all my precious Outlook data & I can't go back to 2003.

87

General Software Discussion / Re: Whats the best program to learn typing?

« on: May 21, 2007, 09:32 PM »

Here's a link to a good free typing tutor:
http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~pmh/Type/

88

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Little Window

« on: May 20, 2007, 09:52 PM »

Rather than dragging to enlarge try clicking on the "maximise/minimise" button on the top right hand corner of the screen(middle one of the three).
Or try asking at one of the many PC forums. I've found them helpful in the past.

89

Developer's Corner / Re: Ask the CSS Guy

« on: May 17, 2007, 02:59 AM »

Steeladept, Thanks for the link to htmldog. I found it helpful too.

90

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you backup your files?

« on: April 25, 2007, 09:56 PM »

I'm using File Hamster to a rack mounted HDD (I remove it and take it with me when the house is unattended) and XX Clone to a HDD in a box which I keep off site and update monthly i.e. do a new clone. I use XX Clone specifically as it will let you clone to a smaller drive (assuming the source drive's contents aren't greater than the drive being used as the clone) this is handy as my back up drives are just ones which have been superseded as I've upgraded the C drive.
I'm pretty much at the novice end of the scale here and so this question may seem a little dumb/naive. Over Easter the MoBo on my PC died on me - was I glad of those back ups as I had to do a clean install with the new MoBo.
So the question is this - is there an easy way to re-install all your programs onto the formatted C drive? I naivley thought it was done from the clone, but it wouldn't work so either I was just wrong in that assumption or I was right, but not doing the process correctly.

91

Developer's Corner / Re: Free HTML / CSS / Link Validation page

« on: March 13, 2007, 06:54 AM »

Thanks for pointing this site out. A great help to a newbie site builder like me. My tiny site has numerous errors

92

Living Room / Re: Drawing with 2 mice

« on: March 08, 2007, 05:58 AM »

I can see that the idea has triggered a little peak of interest.  Thanks, cthorpe, for the links. Those researchers are on the right track in terms of what my partner wanted to do, but really all she wanted to do was be creative and have some fun - I don't think she was going to make a career out of it.

93

Living Room / Drawing with 2 mice

« on: March 06, 2007, 07:11 PM »

My ambidextrous partner is interested in exploring the potential of this trait. She wants to know if it's possible to have two mice (pointing devices) operating simultaneously so that she can "draw" two images at once i.e. using both hands to create different images on the same screen in something like Adobe Illustrator.

Thanks,
Clive

94

Living Room / Re: Six Free Online Storage Services

« on: March 02, 2007, 05:53 AM »

I use MediaMax (was StreamLoad when I subscribed) as a backup service (3rd layer) mostly for images. Various issues mentioned in the review don't really affect me as I hope to never need to download files.They were very helpful & responsive to my enquiries when I had some set up problems at the start which impressed me.

95

Official Announcements / Re: What changes would you like to see on DonationCoder.com in 2007?

« on: February 21, 2007, 03:59 AM »

Mouser,
The collective brain has been of great assistance to me either solving a problem directly or pointing me ,often unknowingly, to a solution.
A salute to everyone who takes the time to post & to you for the your dedication to your ideals.

Clive

96

Official Announcements / Re: What changes would you like to see on DonationCoder.com in 2007?

« on: February 21, 2007, 12:18 AM »

I've just been going backwards through the Best of Blog and am wondering if it would be possible to have page links e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 etc rather than "read older"? There's lots of stuff back there that I'd like to catch up on, but it's a bit tedious always having to start at the newest (on each visit, not session)and work slowly back.

Thanks,
Clive

97

Living Room / Re: System Idle Process Using 85% of CPU

« on: February 07, 2007, 04:49 PM »

Thanks Josh & f0dder for putting my mind at ease.

Clive

98

Living Room / System Idle Process Using 85% of CPU

« on: February 07, 2007, 05:41 AM »

Hi Everyone,
This may be one of those newby questions that only the hopelessly naive would ask, but please be patient with me.
I recently installed a HIPS program called System Safety Monitor. It has the ability, like Process Tamer, to show what processes are running and the percentage of CPU being used by each process.
I was alarmed to see that something called System Idle Process was using between 65 & 85% of the CPU and this was when everything else was ticking over at 1 - 3%. SIP doesn't appear in the PT process list.
Is there really something in my computer using so much of the CPU or do I just not understand something simple which everyone else knows about?

Thanks,
Clive

99

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Place randomly selected quotes in a specific box on a web page

« on: February 01, 2007, 12:33 AM »

The problem has been resolved with the help of Ask The CSS Guy. See Ham Radio's post here:https://www.donation...88.msg50527#msg50527
Thanks Mouser & Chedabob for your offers of assistance.

Clive

100

Developer's Corner / Re: Ask the CSS Guy

« on: February 01, 2007, 12:30 AM »

The "Guy" (Tony) was very helpful with the problem I posted about here: https://www.donation...85.msg49679#msg49679. He responded lightning fast to my request and solved the problem with 2 emails.
Thanks Ham Radio for pointing him out to me.

Clive